Starkville keeps 34-mill tax rate, but reassessment lifts bills about 20%
STARKVILLE — The Starkville Board of Aldermen voted 5-2 on Sept. 1 to hold the city's property tax rate at 34 mills for fiscal year 2027 and adopted a budget built on about $2.1 million in additional revenue — money the city will collect not from a higher rate, but from a reassessment that raised property values across the city.
The rate itself did not move. But a reassessment by the Mississippi Department of Revenue lifted residential and commercial values by an estimated 20 percent, so at an unchanged 34 mills many Starkville homeowners will owe more next year. On a house assessed at $100,000 and now valued at $120,000, the city estimates the increase at roughly $68 a year with a homestead exemption, or about $102 without one.
Mayor Lynn Spruill told the board the new money would pay for police officers and equipment, additional fire personnel and street work, saying the revenue "is going to all the places that matter greatly." She and Ward 2 Alderwoman Sandra Sistrunk, the board's budget chair, have said they could see no way to trim the budget without cutting the police and fire departments.
About half of the additional revenue — roughly $1 million — covers costs the board had already committed to, including road debt service, higher health-insurance costs and changes in the fire department. The remainder funds department requests and employee raises.
The budget drew support from an unlikely quarter. Ward 4 Alderman Mike Brooks, who has voted against every tax increase in his five years on the board, said he would back this one. "I am in favor of this budget," Brooks told the board, adding that rising costs meant the city had to provide for its citizens. He said his own home's assessed value had risen about 27 percent, adding roughly $1,500 to his personal tax bill.
The millage and the budget each passed 5-2. Vice Mayor Roy A. Perkins of Ward 6 and Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn voted against both.